Rodriguez has a $20 million salary this year and is owed $20 million more in 2017, the final season of a $275 million, 10-year contract that was the baseball’s largest when he signed it.
Advertisement
After the game, the 41-year-old Rodriguez will be released from his playing contract and will head home to Miami. His first five seasons in the Bronx featured more gaudy production – he averaged 42 home runs and posted a.974 OPS in this span – but also no shortage of off-field woes.
Admit it: You want one more episode in the must-watch drama that has been Alex Rodriguez‘s career. It did not. At the press conference, Rodriguez commented on whether he thinks he could still play in the majors. “I thought I would have a strong finish and a stronger year next year, but again, that wasn’t in the cards”. “That was the Yankees decision and I’m at peace with it”.
September 3, 2006Rodriguez had three hits, two home runs, and drove in five of the Yankees’ 10 runs in a 10-1 beating in NY. Many were. … You get the idea, it’s always complicated with A-Rod.
At 39, and having not seen major league pitching in 18 months, the odds were stacked against Rodriguez’s renaissance in 2015.
For the team, this loss is more than just on-the-field. Rodriguez was inarguably the best hitting shortstop since the sport’s deadball era, with only the legendary Honus Wagner owning a better claim for the title of best hitting shortstop in baseball history. He was part of three Mariners teams that made the playoffs (1995, 1997, and 2000), but Seattle was unable to grab the American League pennant while he was there, and in a twist of fate, the Mariners actually ended up winning an AL-record 116 games in the season after his departure via free agency. But he would come back with a vengeance in the 1998-1999 season.
The Yankees’ nine-figure MVP is hanging up his pinstripes before he has the opportunity to set a home-run milestone. The one that sent Alfonso Soriano to Texas in exchange for Alex Rodriguez. While a member of the Texas Rangers, Rodriguez solidified himself as one of the best power hitters in baseball.
Given McCann’s hefty contract of $17 million per year through 2018 and a $15 million vesting option, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Two years later, Sports Illustrated reported that Rodriguez failed a 2003 drug test as part of survey testing that was supposed to remain confidential.
The New York Yankees made a huge move by acquiring Alex prior to the 2004 season. Certainly there are other third basemen who could do the job just as sufficiently. Beside moving positions, Rodriguez had to change his number since the number three was retired by the Yankees since it belonged to Babe Ruth. Machado hit a two-run homer in the first and a three-run shot in the second off James Shields (5-14).
On May 30, 2007, the married A-Rod was spotted entering Toronto hotel room with a stripper, prompting The Post to dub him “Stray-Rod” and leading his wife to file divorce the next year, citing “extramarital affairs”. NY will pay him the remainder of the approximately $27 million he’s owed as part of his $275 million, 10-year contract.
A couple years after resigning with the Yankees, in 2009, it was discovered that Alex Rodrigues had tested positive at some point for performance enhancing drugs.
A-Rod made a successful return past year, when the Yankees made him a full-time DH, but his offense slid late in the season. He did not say that he felt like he couldn’t be an effective player anymore.
Advertisement
Major League Baseball suspended him on August 5, 2013, for the remainder of that season and all of 2014 for violations of baseball’s drug and labor contract, caused by use and possession of numerous prohibited performance-enhancing substances and attempting to cover up his violations.
